By Shannon Hale
In the sequel to Real Friends, Shannon finally makes it into the popular group, then spends sixth grade scared of breaking one of its many unwritten rules and losing her spot.
Real Friends left Shannon on the outside looking in. Best Friends picks up in sixth grade with the opposite problem: she's made it into the popular group. Now there are unwritten rules to keep track of — who you're allowed to like, what you can wear, which boys you can have a crush on — and she tries to follow every one so she doesn't lose her spot. There are crushes, a ranking inside the group that keeps shifting, and days when her worry spins up into a spiral she can't stop. She also draws, filling pages with comics and stories that become a place to put everything she's carrying.
What it captures unusually well is the exhausting, ever-shifting social rulebook of middle-school girl friendship, told from the inside. The unwritten rules keep changing and the pecking order keeps moving, and Shannon's anxiety is drawn so plainly — a fluttery dread she carries all day — that a child who feels the same thing may recognize it on the page and feel a little less alone with it. It reads fast and funny, the friendships feel true, and it quietly roots for Shannon to be herself instead of a copy of whoever's in charge. If they loved the first book, this is a guaranteed yes.